Slaughter Foes Triumph...Now What?

Last week, legal wrangling put an end to the practice of slaughtering horses in the United States. The two plants in Texas will remain closed after their attempts to reopen were denied by the Texas legislature and the U.S. Supreme Court. The plant in Dekalb, Illinois, stopped operations after the state's governor signed a law Friday, making horse slaughter illegal there.

Proponents of banning slaughter in this country are celebrating, claiming they've helped horses with their efforts. But have they? Or have they just found a way to push slaughter over the borders and off of Americans' collective conscience?

Slaughter's foes don't seem to be talking about how the number of horses going over our border into Mexico for slaughter has increased over 250 percent so far this year, compared to last. (That stat comes from the USDA.) Nor do the crusaders seem to be mentioning that a new equine slaughter plant is under construction in Saskatchewan, not far from the U.S. border--where foreign interests maintain an equine feedlot on the Montana side.

Maybe they'll get around to talking about those inconvenient realities once the "we won!" partying lands them back on Planet Earth.